A verb appearing in its (Noldorin) infinitive form hasto “hack through” in The Etymologies of the 1930s under the root ᴹ√SYAD “shear through, cleave”, apparently related to N. hast “axe-stroke” (Ety/SYAD). Tolkien indicated the basic verb from the root SYAD was “in N lost owing to coalescence with KHAD” (see N. hadh- “sit”), so it seems the causative or formative verb form *syad-tā̆ is the only verb that survived in the Noldorin branch. For purposes of Neo-Sindarin, I would thus use hasta- for “*cleave” as well.

Conceptual Development: The Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had (archaic) G. †hanna- “mow, cleave” based on the early root ᴱ√χ̑ṇđ [HYAŘA = HYAÐA] (GL/48), a root that was elsewhere glossed “plough through” (QL/41). Early Noldorin Word-lists of the 1920s had ᴱN. daila- “to cleave” based on ᴱN. dail “axe-blade” derived from primitive ᴱ✶daglé (PE13/141).